There are questions of causality that come up in any magickal practice. Sort of the principle of damned if you do and damned if you don’t, and some think that any magickal practice flies in the face of these notions. Especially when it comes to using darker practices, some people question why anyone would even bother. There is a simple reason for this and we will go into that in this series.

What is fatalism in your words, friends?

Something that will happen no matter what, and I guess fatalism is the belief in that.

There’s not much you can do to change your fate.

It feels to me sort of how it felt to watch Titanic. You knew the ending but still wanted to watch it.

Don’t we all feel this to some degree?

Yes. You know what is going to happen, but you do it anyway and secretly hope that Superman will save the Titanic. You keep hoping and still the film does not change and neither does the history.

Yes. The notion of life being ‘out of our hands’ is common.

I think if you give in to that, then you don’t even try.

People struggle with fatalism a lot, also known as defeatism. It calls into question our feelings and desires, our hopes and dreams, and seems to crush them under foot almost completely.

Even if you assume you will do great things, if you don’t work towards it, it will never come to pass. True. There is some version of cause and effect in play, but does it seem so cut and dry as that?

There is a lot of luck in life, bad and good, out of your control.

I’ve thought there seems to be a weighted probability on things. Some things with high probability are more fixed, if not completely, and others are mutable. Well, we assume that cause preceeds effect as well.

I read in a book once that Achilles was dipped into a pool of zero point probability making his fate set in stone so it was impossible to kill him before that. Interesting notion, and solid thought for the most part.

Consider this. If a huge storm breaks out tomorrow, then it was true today that the storm would occur tomorrow. Now adding in the notion that time is only apparent and not in fact existent, then every future event has already happened and thus all causes are likewise set. A big web of cause and effect.

A psychic told me I was going to be sick and she was right. So I guess I couldn’t avoid it even if I knew what would do it.

I assume since they are all in existence however, that I can choose the one I’m conscious of.